Here’s a track from Disc One of Lucinda Williams’ 2014 Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone, her 11th studio album. The album takes its title from a poem by Miller Williams, Lucinda’s father.
I haven’t spent a lot of time with this album but I enjoy the overall vibe. It’s a whole lot of blues rock, played by an all-star lineup of session musicians.
Lucinda Williams has released a dozen albums during her 38-year career, four in the first 18 years and eight in the last 20. She stepped up the pace after 1998’s Car Wheels On a Gravel Road (still her best album), releasing a record about once every other year.
My guess is that if 2014’s Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone had come after a lengthy hiatus, rather than during the relatively productive streak Williams was on at the time, it would have been received with more critical fanfare.
Lucinda Williams’ sprawling double album, Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone, is a lot to wrap my brain around.
It certainly contains some throwaway tracks — I can easily imagine this release pared down to a stellar single disc — but in its ambitious, oversized form it feels at times like a summation of her impressive career.
It took 20 years for Lucinda Williams to release her first four albums. Her most recent four have come at a much faster clip, averaging one every other year.
And while there is no contest in terms of quality — the first batch takes it by a mile — I’m glad to hear new material by one of America’s greatest singer-songwriters with some frequency.
Meet Me In Montauk 